WORLD WHISTLERS

  Only a handful of people in the last seventy years have actually been able to make a living whistling. Hundreds of thousands of people can whistle a tune: less than dozen on our whole planet are probably capable of hitting precise notes well enough to whistle a waltz by Puccini or a show tune by Jerome Kern.

 Jason Victor Serinus can not only do these extraordinary things; he has been actually able to make some money at it -  landing the coveted job of being the 'voice' of Woodstock, the little bird pal of Snoopy the dog in Peanuts TV specials.

 You don't expect a cartoon bird to sing an aria, but apparently Jason whistled 'O Mio Babbino Caro' by Puccini, as Woodstock's aria.

 Ironically, Jason dislikes the 1930s and 40s recordings of the whistler Fred Lowery, who mixed bird imitations in with his songs - yet Jason is the 'voice' of a famous bird (or, lat least, he did dislike Fred's recordings when I spoke to him about them, about 20 years ago).

 When I first played WHISTER EXTRAORDINAIRE in the office, the first response was "Wow! That sounds like Fred Lowry (pause) but even better!"

 Though Jason favors opera and show tunes, he throws in a few pop tunes like Carol King's 'Up on the Roof'.

 These recordings were done over a thirteen-year period from 1981 to 1994, with various and occasionally odd accompaniment: the hokumized version of 'Indian Love Call' is hysterical, while 'On the Sunny Side of the Street' really swings.